Kospi down 0.16% ahead of Trump's inauguration

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Kospi down 0.16% ahead of Trump's inauguration

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,523.55 points on Jan. 17, up 3.94 points, or 0.16 percent, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,523.55 points on Jan. 17, up 3.94 points, or 0.16 percent, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

 
Shares ended slightly lower Friday on foreign selling, with China's better-than-expected economic growth falling short of boosting investor sentiment.
 
The benchmark Kospi fell 3.94 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 2,523.55. The main index has risen 0.3 percent this week. The Kosdaq gained 0.45 points, or 0.06 percent to close at 724.69.
 
The Kospi opened in negative terrain, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.16 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.89 percent.
 
Trade volume was moderate at 436.58 million shares worth 9.88 trillion won ($6.77 billion), with decliners outnumbering winners 444 to 434.
 
Foreigners sold a net 236.87 billion won worth of stocks while institutions offloaded 101.58 billion won. Retail investors bought a net 289.34 billion won.
 
"Foreigners turned net sellers after scooping up local stocks in the previous two sessions ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week," Shinhan Securities analyst Lee Jae-won said.
 
China's robust economic data didn't buoy the index, analysts noted.
 
China's economy grew 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, while reporting annual growth of 5 percent for 2024 on strong exports. Its retail sales rose 3.5 percent on year in 2024.
 
In Seoul, auto and shipbuilding stocks led declines.
 
Hyundai Motor fell 3.42 percent to 211,500 won while Hanwha Ocean dropped 1.55 percent to 50,700 won.
 
Samsung Electronics fell 1.1 percent to 53,700 won while SK hynix rose 2.14 percent to 214,000 won.
 
SK Innovation rose 0.94 percent to 128,800 won and Korea Electric Power Corp. jumped 2.47 percent to 20,750 won.
 
The local currency was trading at 1,458.30 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., up 1.6 won from the previous session.
 
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. Three-year government bond yields fell 3.9 basis points to 2.587 percent, while the return on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds dropped by 4.9 basis points to 4.605 percent.

BY CHO YONG-JUN, YONHAP [[email protected]]
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